San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain
Encyclopedia
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in the autonomous community and province of Murcia
Region of Murcia
The Region of Murcia is an autonomous community of Spain located in the southeast of the country, between Andalusia and Valencian Community, on the Mediterranean coast....
, southeastern Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. The municipality is situated at the northern end of Murcia's Mediterranean coastline, the Costa Cálida
Costa Cálida
The Costa Cálida is the approximately 250 km stretch of Mediterranean coastline of the Spanish province of Murcia. This region has a micro-climate which features comparatively hot mean annual temperatures and a relative degree of aridity .-Geography and location :The Costa Cálida extends from El...
, and borders with the province of Alicante
Alicante (province)
Alicante or Alacant is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is bordered by the provinces of Murcia on the southwest, Albacete on the west, Valencia on the north, and the Mediterranean Sea on the east...
. It has an area of almost 22 km², and a population (2008) of 23,738.
Geography
San Pedro del Pinatar (Saint Peter of the Pinewoods) is about 49 km from the provincial capital, MurciaMurcia
-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
. The municipality is situated between the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
coast and the Mar Menor
Mar Menor
Mar Menor is a salty lagoon, in the south-east of the autonomous Community of Murcia, in Spain, separated from the Mediterranean sea by La Manga, a sandbar 22km in length and with a variable width from 100 to 1200m....
("Little Sea"), a coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
al salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
water lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
which is the largest in Europe. The Mar Menor coast belongs to other three municipalities: San Javier, Los Alcázares
Los Alcázares
Los Alcázares - pronounced Los Al-Katha-Res is a small, but expanding coastal spa town and former fishing village on the Western side of the Mar Menor in the autonomous community and province of Murcia, southeastern Spain....
and Cartagena
Cartagena, Spain
Cartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital...
. The latter is not by the Mar Menor itself, but in the Mediterranean.
San Pedro del Pinatar occupies a small peninsula with 14 km of coastline between the two seas. The terrain is a mostly low-lying littoral
Littoral
The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...
depression
Depression (geology)
A depression in geology is a landform sunken or depressed below the surrounding area. Depressions may be formed by various mechanisms.Structural or tectonic related:...
, with an average elevation of only 13 m above mean sea level
Above mean sea level
The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
.
Economy and Industries
FishingFishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and related processing industries have been a mainstay of the local municipal economy, with tourism– and services–related industries playing an ever-increasing role .
salt ponds
Salt evaporation pond
Salt evaporation ponds, also called salterns or salt pans, are shallow artificial ponds designed to produce salts from sea water or other brines. The seawater or brine is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested...
have been worked in the area since the time of the Roman Empire.
A small port in the Mediterranean Sea exists, with a centered activity in the fishing and the transport of the salt; as well as with a sport port with enough points of mooring. There is another sport port in the Mar Menor next to the market of the fish and the wharf of the fishermen.
Entertainment
San Pedro del Pinatar remains a very popular Spanish holiday destination and the population swells during the summer months as people from Madrid (and other Spaniards) with second homes descend on the area. Lots of free entertainment is provided by the council.Celebrations
- Processions and parades at Easter
- At the end of June, San Pedro Apostle.
- On 16 July, "romería" of the Virgin of the Carmen.
Monuments and Places of interest
- Ethnographic Archaeological museum (Calle Dr. Mirón de Castro: It contains paleontological fossils, objects, etc. It has an exclusive room for submarine archaeology and another one for the ethnographic type dedicated to the last centuries (from the 18th century).
- Museum of the Sea (Calle Ingeniero Lorenzo Morales, 2.): marine and marine article collections.
- Conservation and research center of the Humedales "Las Salinas" (Avda. de las salinas): it offers interesting exhibitions on the natural park and the work in the salt mines.
- "Casa del reloj" or Villa of San Sebastian (Avda. Artero Guirao): an example of modernist architecture. Its Spanish president, Emilio Castelar y Ripoll died in 1899. Since the end of the 20th century it has been reconstructed and turned into a restaurant.
- Church of San Pedro Apostle (Plaza de la Constitucion): it is a temple that became a franciscan hermitage in the 17th century.
- Palace of counts Villar de Felices or Casa of the Russian (C/ Victor Pradera s/n): building in neo-mudéjarMudéjarMudéjar is the name given to individual Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus who remained in Iberia after the Christian Reconquista but were not converted to Christianity...
style constructed in the 19th century by order of Baron de Benifalló. - Fish Market in Lo Pagán (Explanada of Lo Pagán): a traditional fish auction can be seen.
- The "Salinas y Arenales" natural park.
Beaches
In the Mar MenorMar Menor
Mar Menor is a salty lagoon, in the south-east of the autonomous Community of Murcia, in Spain, separated from the Mediterranean sea by La Manga, a sandbar 22km in length and with a variable width from 100 to 1200m....
:
- Villananitos
- La Puntica
- La Mota
In the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
:
- Beach El Mojón
- Beach of La Torre Derribada Playa
- Beach of Las Salinas
- Beach Punta de Algas
- Beach of La Barraca Quemada
Others links
Salinas y Arenales de San Pedro del PinatarExternal links
Local Government website- San Pedro del Pinatar
- Lo Pagan coastal neighborhood of San Pedro